tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us.

GPOYW, c. 2008/9

My height is given as five feet two and a quarter inches, my eyes as blue, and I belong to the 1-2% of humans with what fellow redhead Anne of Green Gables called “titian hair.” My eyes are bluest in the morning and I have horrendous eyesight. I grew exactly one inch between the ages of 24 and 29. I am fairly asymmetrical: my right eye is larger than my left, my nose has a minorly distinct bump that I’ve attempted to squish down by applying pressure from the ages of 11-27. I’ve largely given up on that. I have freckles that are beginning to fade, sadly, and I have a tiny indentation on the left side of my nose from a bout of chicken pox when I was five. My smile is also crooked, turning up more on the right side. In fact, the right side of my face is far more expressive, I’ve always wondered why. I’m squinty, my eyes all but disappear when I laugh. My smile is either tight-lipped or horrendously uncontrolled. My bottom teeth are crooked, despite expensive orthodontia and retainers in my youth, due to a thumb-sucking habit that furtively existed until I was six or so. My tongue likes the crowdedness now, it is the one reassuring constant of our day. My hands are small, and my index finger on both hands is my favorite. I am considerably uncoordinated, unable to either snap my fingers or whistle. I am flexible in hip but not in waist. I’ve never broken a bone nor sprained anything. I’m not particularly athletic, I run a twelve-minute mile. I have a scar of unknown origin on my inner left thigh, and a birthmark in the shape of the state of California on my lower left calf. I am a fifth generation native of San Francisco on both sides of my family. My parents grew up next door to each other and have been married for 38 years. My red hair and obstinate constitution come from my mother and my squinty eyes and absent-mindedness from my father. I do not wear a watch but am always able to guess the time within a five minute margin of error. I also have an excellent internal compass. I was voted by a small control group to be “most likely to survive in a horror film.” I have won the following awards: “Most Distinguished Scholar of Ancient Curses” (Egyptology Camp, 1991) and “Best Bloody Mary in the French Quarter” (New Orleans, 2002).

_{(written via Pierce’s “assignment” some time ago)}